Lucas Browne has defended his embarrassing first round knockout against Paul Gallen through a series of demeaning Instagram posts that he alleges show dirty tacists from the former NRL star.
‘Big Daddy’ Browne was flattened by Gallen after just 114 seconds of their supposed boxing showdown after being pictured eating what appeared to be a meaty sausage roll just minutes before the bout.
The former WBA heavyweight champion took to social media to defend his disgraceful performance insisting ‘a friend’ had sent him footage that showed the former Sharks captain taking cheap shots.
‘A friend of mine sent me a video this morning (Saturday), a compilation of all the hits … in the ear and behind the head, which obviously explains the extensive amount of pain I was in last night from the flight (home to Perth),’ Browne said.
‘Also there’s a picture that will show everything that’s coming out of my ear on to my pillow.’
Lucas Browne has defended his embarrassing first round knockout against Paul Gallen through a series of demeaning Instagram posts that he alleges show dirty tacists from the former NRL star
Former champion Lucas Browne took to instagram to defend himself after taking a beating from former NRL legend Paul Gallen, including showing where Gallen hit him
Big Daddy down… Lucas Browne was a huge disappointment in his first round loss to Paul Gallen on Wednesday
Browne, a legitimate champion who buckled to a former rugby league player, dismissed public opinion that he’d thrown the fight, instead pleading foul play on the part of Gallen.
‘People saying that I threw the fight, I’m just doing it for money … we’ll, I’m sorry. I got hit behind the head five to six times which threw my equilibrium out. Hence I was cross-eyed for most of it and couldn’t fight back,’ Browne alleged.
‘I wasn’t knocked out, so to speak, with one punch and out cold. I basically had no equilibrium and couldn’t stand up straight. That was the reason I lost the fight.
‘Again, credit to Paul. Well done Gal for getting away with forearming someone and hitting them in the back of the head.’
Gallen dismissed any idea the fight was fixed, claiming he ‘flat-out bashed’ the former heavyweight champion and dismissed any idea that Browne took him lightly.
‘There’s no way he took a dive. I flat-out bashed him, to be honest with you,’ Gallen said on radio.
‘I have no doubt he took me lightly. I said that throughout the whole build-up. He thought he was going to walk through me,’ Gallen said.
‘That was his attitude. He wouldn’t have taken the fight if he thought it was going to be a competition like it was.
‘He tried to pull his finger out, but as I said during the press conference, it was too late unless you had done the work earlier on. You can’t cram it all into the last two weeks and he tried to do that and it didn’t work for him.
‘He didn’t take a dive. There’s no way he took a dive.
‘It disappoints me after all of the hard work I’ve done over the past 11 weeks that people are actually saying that.’
‘It’s so f**king sad to see so many bulls**t comments, attacks, haters and people saying I took a dive,’ Browne wrote in response.
‘I had a fight, I fought s**t, couldn’t recover, have been out the ring for too long and got beat, end of story.’
His last fight before Gallen was a stoppage of John Hopoate in 2019, whom Gallen also stopped.
Despite partly blaming his 18 month break from the ring for the loss – sometimes known as ‘ring rust’ – he also seemed to suggest he didn’t have enough preparation time.
‘It was a very short period we had to work with, there’s going to be a lot more coming forward as well,’ he claimed in the video on Instagram.
Browne was totally outclassed by Gallen in the former Cronulla Sharks skipper’s 12 professional fight.
Paul Gallen was pumped after blitzing Lucas Browne in an impressive performance
Browne, 42, looked slow and appeared to lack power against a much fitter and faster Gallen, 39.
Despite being the heavy favourite and having huge advantages in height, reach and experience, Browne turned in a lumbering performance.
The 6’5″ Browne is 18cm taller than Gallen and had a 17cm edge in reach and had 31 professional fights, including winning the WBA belt from Ruslan Chagaev in 2016.
‘I got in there, had a go, failed, and that’s it… full credit to Gallen. Thank you to the fans, supporters and sponsors, and I do apologise.’
The victorious Gallen also denied rumours Browne intentionally lost the fight, or that that $60 pay-per-view match was rigged.
‘I have no doubt he took me lightly. I said that throughout the whole build-up. He thought he was going to walk through me,’ Gallen said.
Sore and sorry: Lucas Browne showed off his injuries on Instagram after the big fight and apologised to fans
Browne told his ‘haters’ he did not take a dive: ‘I got in there, had a go, failed, and that’s it’ he said – but he also blamed ring rust and a short preparation time
In the fight Browne did appear to cop several blows to his left ear from Gallen.
There are precedents in recent boxing history for shock losses after favoured boxers took hits to the ear, including world champion Anthony Joshua in his loss to Andy Ruiz in 2019.
But Ruiz was a known quantity and highly regarded as a boxer.
In one of the most spectacular upsets in boxing history Australian Danny Green stopped American legend Roy Jones jr in 2009 after hitting him behind the left ear early in the fight.
After Browne made his excuses, he did offer thanks to his team.
‘What I do want to say is a massive thank you to the fans and the supporters, also all the sponsors that have helped me get here as well.
‘Learning a lot, looking forward to what’s coming next.’
